NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has recently taken photos of the sun with a big grin on its face, which was then uploaded to the observatory's official website. If you tilt your head slightly to the left, scientists say that two eyes, a nose, a mouth and even cheekbones can seemingly be seen clearly in the image.
Can The Sun Be Observing Us All These Times?
In one of his statements reported by Daily Mail, NASA Scientist Karl Battams explained that the eyes are likely active regions of the sun, while the mouth is a solar filament which happens to be a plasma in the sun's atmosphere. Furthermore, Battams have claimed that the dark spots that resemble hair at the sides are coronal holes which are the regions where the sun's corona is dark.
According to News Everyday, it was found that the sun's corona is actually a plasma which is far hotter by a factor from 150 to 450 than the other surface. The average temperature of the sun's corona is one to three million Kelvin. Moreover, the factors which make it hotter than the other region are allegedly due to the constant outflow of particles and the solar flares. These solar materials that permeate the solar system are called solar wind.
Meanwhile, experts have noted that the Solar Dynamics Observatory is the first mission to be launched for NASA's "Living With a Star" (LWS) program, which is a program that aims to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth. It was found that in 2012, NASA had also released a similar picture of the star, which was believed to bear a remarkable resemblance to the famous Sesame Street character Big Bird. While the image was just created by a coronal hole, experts have highly emphasized that it's not quite as clear as the smiling face.
